genre: Poetry in translation

Four Poems by Jadwiga Malina

By Jadwiga Malina and Joanna Banach   

Translated from the Polish by Joanna Banach   A Hunt at Water’s Edge Rushing browns. Ochres. Crimsons. Cinnabars falling to the ground. On vaults. On walls. In the fire. Scratching and wallowing. Down below some shrubs, a lake, or maybe a river. Taut backs of shadows. To be so close to the shimmer. At dusk.… Read more »


Two Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke

Two Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke

By Rainer Maria Rilke and Susanne Petermann   

Translated from the French by Susanne Petermann   Child at the Window A child watches out the window for his mother. The hour is endless….never before has he felt such aching in his soul. All these passing strangers, one the same as the next.  It isn’t really their fault if they don’t measure up. His… Read more »


Two Poems by Ilya Kutik

By Ilya Kutik and Reginald Gibbons   

Translated from the Russian by Kutik and Reginald Gibbons.   Prayer (Theme and Variations) If only I knew what new Keats Time has so intently fixed in its gaze, licking its lips with the tongue of its  pendulum. Pendulum—sharp double-edged plait on the peruke of Time. Time!—in the reign of which Frederick or Paul did… Read more »


The Mystical and the Bewildering:  An interview with Barbara Siegel Carlson and Ewa Chrusciel

The Mystical and the Bewildering: An interview with Barbara Siegel Carlson and Ewa Chrusciel

By Dzvinia Orlowsky   

I’m delighted to interview Barbara Siegel Carlson and Ewa Chrusciel in celebration of their recently published new books, What Drifted Here and Yours, Purple Gallinule, respectively. In addition to being two poets I greatly admire, Carlson and Chrusciel are internationally respected translators as well as esteemed editors of Solstice’s Poetry in Translation. DO:  Writing reveals… Read more »


Ganges

By Elsa Cross and Susan Ayres   

Translated from the Spanish by Susan Ayres   This piece is part of our Winter 2022 print issue, available for purchase here.    


Two Poems

Two Poems

By Mirabai and Chloe Martinez   

Translated from the Braj Bhasa by Chloe Martinez   This piece is part of our Winter 2022 print issue, available for purchase here.


Three Poems

By Yulia Berezhko-Kaminska   

Translated from the Ukranian by Andrew Sheppard   This piece is part of our Winter 2022 print issue, available for purchase here.


Two Poems

By Olesya Mamchych and Christine Eliashevsky Chraibi   

Translated from the Ukrainian by Christine Chraibi   This piece is part of our Winter 2022 print issue, available for purchase here.


Three Poems by Serhiy Zhadan

By Serhiy Zhadan, Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps   

Translated from the Ukrainian by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps   *** You will never write about how it all really was. You won’t dare, you’ll keep it to yourself, put it aside, keep it in the dark. You’ll talk about literature, when you should talk about life, it’s life that rushes out into the… Read more »


Two Poems by Jacques Viau Renaud

By Jacques Viau Renaud and Ariel Francisco   

Translated from the Spanish by Ariel Francisco   Homeland Homeland from your starved latitude I felt my people rise through sonorous essences and heavy breaths. Homeland I felt how you grip through my blood squeezing my throat bruising my neck screaming along to my song. I witnessed your anguish from afar blooming in treetops erupting… Read more »


Two Poems by Bożena Boba-Dyga

By Bożena Boba-Dyga, Kateryna Devdera and Ewa Chrusciel   

Translated from the Polish by Ewa Chrusciel   Leopolis semper fidelis   Seemed like forever and ever Until Stalin stole it And now Putler bombs it You’ll see, you scum You will see Soot of Moscow, smoking ruins of your cities Polluted Forever cursed and dead There won’t be anybody left to rebuild When stone… Read more »


Kateryna Devdera

By Kateryna Devdera, Bożena Boba-Dyga and Ewa Chrusciel   

Translated from the Ukrainian by Bożena Boba-Dyga  and Ewa Chrusciel   The biggest dream: to be with you all at Easter To gather for Easter. This Easter. Greetings, my family; what’s new, Mom? Mom is baking bread as always. My dear ones are all alive. My peace of mind quivers on a line. “My” dear… Read more »


Three Poems by Mariangela Gualtieri

By Mariangela Gualtieri and Cristina Viti   

translated from the Italian by Cristina Viti     Aidoios The word Αἰδοῖος is untranslatable. It is connected to the particular kind of respect due to an unfortunate person who is begging us… It is not to our credit that neither French nor, as far as I know, any other modern language has a word… Read more »


Three Poems by Justyna Bargielska

By Justyna Bargielska and Maria Jastrzębska   

translated from the Polish by Maria Jastrzębska   Bug There was only one and he died instantly. Someone had trodden on him on the first step, if you count from the bottom, or on the last if you count from the top. Something poured out of him as he lay there. My daughter asked if… Read more »


The Shark

By RoodlyLaurore and Jerrice J. Baptiste   

translated from the French by Jerrice J. Baptiste     In the hollow of a dark and quiet mountain, where the wind stops blowing, leaves of the trees are silent birds don’t sing. You don’t even hear the sound of silence. It was midnight, the sky was overcast no moon, no stars a mysterious but… Read more »


Four Poems by Małgorzata Lebda

By Małgorzata Lebda and Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese   

translated from the Polish Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese   fire: cleansing into the lid of a big jar father pours methylated spirits lets me set it on fire over the flame he singes the cold body of a duck heart or liver? he asks though he knows that mother will save the liver for me apparently thanks… Read more »


Two Poems by Astrid Cabral

By Astrid Cabral and Alexis Levitin   

translated from the Portuguese by Alexis Levitin   Obstacle Because of poetry beans burn milk spills one forgets to change clothes go inside out the baby cries in hunger one misses the train. But one goes on. Who knows to where, to what anonymous cloud.   With the Word, the Poem Don’t put another music… Read more »


Three Poems by Boris A. Novak

By Boris A. Novak   

translated from the Slovene by the author   from THE DOORS OF NO RETURN (fragments from the epos) Book One: MAPS OF NOSTALGIA Notebook One: THE ADDRESS  Canto Two: THE ANCESTRAL TREE   1 … I was a reflection on the quick mirror of the water, and I was a shadow on the running window… Read more »


A Poem by Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918)

By Guillaume Apollinaire and Lynn Levin   

Translated from the French by Lynn Levin   The Mirabeau Bridge Under the Mirabeau Bridge flows the Seine  And so our loves  Must I recall again How joy always followed pain Come the night come the day The hours pass here I stay Your hands in my hands let’s linger face to face  While underneath… Read more »


Three Poems by Amir Or

By Amir Or and Seth Michelson   

from CHILD translated from the Hebrew by Seth Michelson   Stricken A fallen angel always remembers height is depth, the wings – the fear; how his heart exfoliated leaf by leaf till left stark naked. An angel that fell from love to hope flaps its ghost wings in vain; parched and starved, his hands stretched… Read more »


Two Poems

Two Poems

By Giuseppe Ungaretti and Wally Swist   

translated from Italian by Wally Swist   from L’Allegria/Cheerfulness (Poems 1914-1919) Nostalgia When night fades just before the springtime and it is a rare person who passes Over Paris a dark color weeping thickens In a poem of a bridge I contemplate the incalculable silence of a slender girl Our afflictions merge together And how… Read more »


Prague Poem

Prague Poem

By Aleš Mustar and Manja Maksimovič   

translated from Slovenian by Manja Maksimovič   On the Charles Bridge instead of a passion play hordes of tourists with short-term memory loss unknowingly enact the role of refugees. There is no more space for genuine puppeteers. In souvenir shops the Good Soldier Švejk is rarely represented. He has been replaced by Hello Kitty. At… Read more »


Four Poems

Four Poems

By Wojciech Bonowicz and Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese   

translated from Polish by Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese   Second bell Hens are for the motherland ducks are against. And the dog is divided. For a moment he turns his bloodshot eyes to the sky. Then his gaze drops to the road again. In dust up to his armpits comes a toothless man who likes to tease.… Read more »


Two Poems

Two Poems

By Natalka Bilotserkivets, Ali Kinsella and Dzvinia Orlowsky   

translated from Ukrainian by Ali Kinsella and Dzvinia Orlowsky     Bridge                                                                        The air is as still and hot as my body. Arched like a bridge over a river. It’s so quiet—the nightingales must be drinking their own black alcohol. No sounds. Only color and shades spread out across the water. Face up—that’s how it… Read more »


In Pandemic Times

In Pandemic Times

By Ute von Funcke and Stuart Friebert   

This piece is part of our Fall/Winter 2020 print issue. Translated from German by the author and Stuart Friebert 


night truck driver

night truck driver

By Marcin Świetlicki and Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese   

This piece is part of our Fall/Winter 2020 print issue. Translated from Polish by Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese 


first snow

first snow

By Marcin Świetlicki and Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese   

This piece is part of our Fall/Winter 2020 print issue. Translated from Polish by Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese 


aha

aha

By Marcin Świetlicki and Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese   

This piece is part of our Fall/Winter 2020 print issue. Translated from Polish by Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese 


Skies

Skies

By Irene Bablé Marruffi   

Translated from Spanish by Stephen Kessler   The sky cut up by bars, cells of so many hopeless jails The rounded light of the ox’s eye and a sailor once more defying the storm. Sky bloody with senseless falling missiles, because of so many treasured hatreds. The most intense blue of a huge twilight under… Read more »


Two Poems by Piotr Maur

Two Poems by Piotr Maur

By Piotr Maur   

Translated from Polish by Katarzyna Jakubiak   [a small, local church. we hide there] a small, local church. we hide there from the pouring rain. a few sniffling saints watch us curiously with their eyes weathered by looking into eternity. women nailed for ever to the first rows raise prayers to christ, who quite effectively… Read more »


Legacy

Legacy

By Lidija Dimkovska   

Translated from Macedonian by Ljubica Arsovska, and Patricia Marsh   Ingrid Jonker writes to Olivera Korveziroska A bullet in the head would do you good, a jump off a bridge or a cut wrist, hydrochloric acid in your tea, your husband’s belt round your neck, at the wrong time, in the wrong place death is… Read more »


An Interview by Dzvinia Orlowsky with Translators Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps of What We Live For, What We Die For, Selected Poems, by Serhiy Zhadan

By Serhiy Zhadan, Wanda Phipps, Virlana Tkacz and Dzvinia Orlowsky   

translated by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps, Yale University Press, 2019. Interview conducted by Dzvinia Orlowsky,  July 8, 2019   DO:  Thank you, Virlana, for taking the time to speak with me about your and Wanda Phipp’s process in translating this extraordinary collection.  I’d like to begin by quoting lines from one of Zhadan’s poems… Read more »


Mari Epu
Poem by Jaime Huenún Villa,
Translated from Spanish by Cynthia Steele

By Jaime Huenún and Cynthia Steele   

          Mari Epu He drank drops of light from a wooden cup, cold sweat of the resilient, delirious dead. That’s why he dances and lives amid stiff ferns, flinging himself onto the fallow mud. They saw him on the summit, singing demented, trembling and soaking wet, like an old nag. He

Two Poems by Yang Xiaobin
Translated from Chinese by Canaan Morse

By Yang Xiaobin and Canaan Morse   

  Political Poem All the guns are buried in the sky awaiting Autumn’s order to disarm A full barrage lifts up the legendary palace lifts up the joking emperor All the guns are explicating me their injuries also in the silent parts bleeding days, bullets are intelligent All of my selves are pummeling the allies

Take from my open hands<br> By Osip Emilievich Mandelstam, 1920

Take from my open hands
By Osip Emilievich Mandelstam, 1920

By Dzvinia Orlowsky   

    A little sun, Honey Like the bees of Persephone No one can free a boat unanchored, hear the shadow shod in fur, track down fear this dense forest. We are left with kisses, Tingling tiny bees that die On leaving their hive Rustling In translucent underbrush of Their night. Home: Taygetus’ thick wood,

The Direction of the Arrow

The Direction of the Arrow

By Ute von Funcke and Stuart Friebert   

This piece is part of our Fall 2019 print issue. Translated from German by Stuart Friebert 


An Old Poet

An Old Poet

By Aleš Šteger and Brian Henry   

This piece is part of our Fall 2019 print issue. Translated from Slovenian by Brian Henry 


Poetical

Poetical

By Cesare Pavese and Richard Jackson   

This piece is part of our Fall 2019 print issue. Translated from Italian by Richard Jackson 


from Anaglyphs

from Anaglyphs

By Krystyna Miłobędzka and Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese   

This piece is part of our Fall 2019 print issue. Translated from Polish by Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese 


Foreign Languages

Foreign Languages

By Jacek Dehnel and Karen Kovacik   

This piece is part of our Fall 2019 print issue. Translated from Polish by Karen Kovacik 


Prenestina rulsz

Prenestina rulsz

By Edoardo Olmi and Anna Aresi   

This piece is part of our Fall 2019 print issue. From R: exist-stance (2017). Translated from Italian by Anna Aresi. 


traveling brother

traveling brother

By Edoardo Olmi and Anna Aresi   

This piece is part of our Fall 2019 print issue. From R: exist-stance (2017). Translated from Italian by Anna Aresi. 


Three Poems by Josip Osti

Three Poems by Josip Osti

By Josip Osti and Martha Kosir   

translated from the Slovene by Martha Kosir   AN UNWRITTEN POEM I dreamt of a poem: beautiful and wholesome. A polished crystal ball. An open cage, filled with the golden, autumn brightness of the Karst. Inside it, emptiness that cradled a music box in its heart. The sound of a dead bird’s flapping wings. And… Read more »


Two Poems by María Negroni

Two Poems by María Negroni

By María Negroni and Allison A. deFreese   

translated from the Spanish by Allison A. deFreese Translator’s note: These translated poems are excerpts from Elegía Joseph Cornell/Elegy for Joseph Cornell, an experimental book by María Negroni (Spanish language, Argentina) about Joseph Cornell–as well as about his subjects (including “Godiva” and other actors—among them, children–from his fairytale film Children’s Party). Elegy for Joseph Cornell… Read more »


Berlin

Berlin

By Vasyl Makhno and Olena Jennings   

translated from Ukrainian by Olena Jennings   the poem you wrote with a fox’s claw on the way to Berlin – and about which you were silent and now you say: here it is, catch that’s why I keep this house and its transparent walls where I settled with you in the thistle’s light –… Read more »


Loose Thread

Loose Thread

By Jacek Gutorow and Piotr Florczyk   

translated from Polish by Piotr Florczyk   I know, simplicity isn’t in demand. Minimalism, yes, but nothing excessive (maybe a spiderweb in the corner of the poem). I don’t care for comparisons. I cross out, proofread, clean up. I leave one loose thread.       Jacek Gutorow is one of Poland’s premier contemporary poets,… Read more »


Four Poems by Krystyna Dąbrowska

Four Poems by Krystyna Dąbrowska

By Krystyna Dąbrowska and Karen Kovacik   

translated from Polish by Karen Kovacik   Contraband Years ago, when Mrs. Kubicka saw a plane in the sky, she’d throw down her scythe and hide in the grain. Now she’s flying for the first time to her daughter in America. Who’s getting married, Mrs. Kubicka says, to some good-for-nothing. Under her clothes, she’s smuggling… Read more »